T&T Chamber renews call for implementation of procurement legislation
The T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce (T&T Chamber) is again appealing to the Government to operationalise the substantive provisions of The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act.
The T&T Chamber in a statement called for the immediate proclamation of Section 24 – (1), 2 except (f), (3) (4) and (5) as it reminded Finance Minister Colm Imbert of the commitment given in his 2020 Budget Statement that the new procurement arrangements would be fully implemented this year.
The chamber, which has long advocated for the implementation of the procurement legislation also questioned why Government was moving to make amendments to Section 7 of the Act, when this was not the recommendation from the Office of the Procurement Regulator.
“We also note that the Minister of Finance in his 2020 National Budget presentation delivered on 7th of October 2019, stated “Further, we have received recommendations from the Regulator regarding the appropriate treatment of public-private-partnerships and Government-to-Government arrangements, which we intend to adopt” (Ref: Page 8, Budget Statement 2020).
We understand the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR) recommended that there should be no amendments to section 7, so what is being suggested now is contrary to those recommendations.”
The T&T Chamber stressed the importance of honouring the repeated commitments to have the Act fully implemented to address the procurement inefficiencies and wastage of public funding.
In pressing for the urgent operationalisation of the legislation, it said current procurement regulations must ensure that Government expenditure be made with the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago in mind.
Recognising that government-to-government arrangements may provide the benefit of preferential offers like economic and technical assistance, the T&T Chamber recommended that the total cost of ownership must be captured in evaluating any purchase decision.
… more
Image: The Blue Diamond Gallery